ESPN docum on Tonya-Nancy: 20 Years After on Thurs, Jan 16

I know that this was mentioned on the GSD forum (Tonya-Nancy 20th anniv thread) but I did not see it here. New documentary on the 1994 Tonya-Nancy saga: "The Price of Gold." Part of the 30 for 30 series, which previously aired the Katarina Witt doc last year. First scheduled airing will be this Thursday, Jan 16, 9pm EST, on ESPN.

I noticed that too! Also the bit about Nancy's reaction to Oksana's crying in Lillehammer. Tonya on Nancy as she awaits Oksana to appear for the medals: "Shut up! Nobody wants to hear your whining!" This would be a classic clip if someone knows how to 'isolate' and put it up on YouTube. Mamma mia!

Also very interesting:
Scott H and Connie Chung (CBS reporter at the time) admitted that CBS was "devastated" that the Olympic results did not turn out to be as planned & that Oksana won. I don't ever recall CBS ever saying this so clearly, even though all of us assumed that this was the case.

Also, I noticed that, in the clips of Tonya's programs at various Nationals & other events telecast by ABC (SkAmerica91, Nats 91, 92 and 94, etc.) actors voiced-over the words of commentators Dick Button & Peggy Fleming. The picture on the screen was clear as a bell but the sound was different. I wonder if Dick and Peggy refused to give the OK to use their voices in this documentary? (Yet, at one point, Julie Moran was seen AND heard...and backstage interviewer Jimmie Roberts was also seen and heard).

And THANK YOU to Paul Wylie for stating that Nancy's technical content was higher than Oksana's. Too bad that the "Eastern Block" countries plus IIRC China gave Oksana higher tech marks than she deserved and lowballed Nancy's clean 3-lutz and 3-3 combo. The only other person I've ever seen state the obvious was Christine Brennan in one of her books (not Edge of Glory, the other one ... dah! can't remember the title!).

Also loved him for saying flat-out that Tonya deserved to be banned from the sport. Now can we PLEASE, PLEASE have HIM in the broadcast booth for televised skating??????

Tonya STFU already!!! GET OVER IT????!!!!!! Who the feck is SHE to tell Nancy to stop whining over the OSM??? The fact that Nancy refused to take part in the documentary tells me she is very much over it, and probably doesn't give her silver medal much, if any, thought these days. Tonya is the one 20 years later, who is still whining over how she was treated by Nancy, USAFA, the press, et. al.

And THANK YOU to Paul Wylie for stating that Nancy's technical content was higher than Oksana's. Too bad that the "Eastern Block" countries plus IIRC China gave Oksana higher tech marks than she deserved and lowballed Nancy's clean 3-lutz and 3-3 combo.

Also loved him for saying flat-out that Tonya deserved to be banned from the sport.

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This!

It was interesting that her "childhood friend" said that Tonya had always avoided taking responsibility for her actions; which is still the case.

Nancy can't be blamed for refusing to be interviewed.
However, that made the program more "All About Tonya" and her "ruined" life than it should have been.

I haven't seen this yet (don't think I can, honestly), but I've read stories about it, and the only person I would have loved to hear from is Diane Rawlinson. The director mentioned she won't talk to anyone.

I haven't seen this yet (don't think I can, honestly), but I've read stories about it, and the only person I would have loved to hear from is Diane Rawlinson. The director mentioned she won't talk to anyone.

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Can you blame her? It must be hard to deal with the fact that she was one of Tonya's staunchest allies and supporters during her skating career, and probably did her best to encourage Tonya to improve her over-all presentation as a person in the rest of her life, not just on the ice as a skater, and this is how it all turned out. And did Rawlinson have any other notable skaters other than Tonya or is she the only one this coach will be remembered for (unlike someone like Frank Carroll, for whom the likes of Fratianne, Kwan and Lysacek can minimise the wasted talent that was Bowman)?

I can't blame Rawlinson either, though I suppose I'm curious in wanting to hear from someone whose sole star protégé turned out to be a hot mess, despite what I assume are valiant efforts. Did she feel betrayed? Frustrated? Was she simply not cut out for coaching a life (in addition with the athlete that went with it)? Does she still have any sympathy for Tonya?

I guess I'm craving a different angle to this mess, since I'm sick of the same old that's been trotted out all these years by the same parties.

I haven't seen this yet (don't think I can, honestly), but I've read stories about it, and the only person I would have loved to hear from is Diane Rawlinson. The director mentioned she won't talk to anyone.

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So there will be yet another documentary on this? During the NBC coverage of the Games? Thanks for the heads up, The Brunette.

Dody Teachman, another Tonya coach, was interviewed (and looks fantastic, by the way). Perhaps another reason why Rawlison was not interviewed is that her husband was one of Tonya's lawyers? They're probably all sick and tired of this event.

One thing that did actually make me snicker was when they were talking about the papers that were found in the dumpster behind the restaurant. I'm paraphrasing since I don't remember the exact words, but Tonya says something to the affect of 'they tested the handwriting and it DIDN'T match mine!'. Cue to the Prosecutor dude who says 'we tested the handwriting and it matched Tonya's'. Funny piece of editing there.

Back in the day (and pre-internet for me so I only relied on watching the nightly newscast stories), I wanted so badly to believe Tonya did not have anything to do with it because I was a huge fan of her skating and I was always rooting for her to win against Kristi and Nancy. But the more she just goes on and on and contradicts the facts (and even her own stories) .... sigh.

I watched the rerun and didn't catch that they had actors doing the announcer voiceovers on the skating clips of Tonya the first time (I paid attention after reading that above). That was odd. ABC/ESPN broadcast all those events so why couldn't a documentary created by ESPN (which is owned by ABC, right?) use the audio coverage? Listening to it the second time, it was weird.

And watching it again just makes me shake my head even more. Especially when you closely watch Tonya in those old news clips knowing everything that we know today that we didn't know then. And damn it Connie Chung didn't hit the nail on the head when she said Tonya was like a seasoned politician during interviews, because she totally was.

I watched the rerun yesterday and was just amazed at Tonya. She seems to have no idea why she got any punishment (even if she only covered up that's still a crime) and why she didn't make money off of the Olympics. I really didn't have time to watch this, but it kind of was like watching an accident unfold. Even though you know the ending is not going to be good you can't take your eyes off the scene. I kept waiting for more current interviews with her because that's what I found most bizarre.

I understand she had a rough childhood, but at some point you have to quit blaming your parents for who you are and realize that at this point it's YOUR decisions that make you who you are. She seems to think we should believe she did nothing wrong and was punished just for not fitting the mold. Umm.. I don't think the charge of interfering with an investigation had much to do with her "image" not being princess. My experience has been that compared to a lot of folks a prosecutor sees she probably had a good image which may have even helped

I feel the statement Tonya made no money off of the incident isn't quite true. She was able to sell the sex tape, competed in a few pro events, sold interviews, got money from boxing for a time (including the televised match with Paula Jones) and a few other things. She didn't make large money in comparison to the big-time pro skaters of the skating boom, but she made more than she would have, had she simply gone to the '94 Olympics and placed 8th without the scandal. She wasn't going to be SOI or USFS pro-am material, either way.

The other thing I will say is her coaches should be VERY ashamed of themselves. If they knew she was being abused and didn't call the proper authorities only because "she won't be able to skate" that's not a good excuse. Sounded more like they were looking out for themselves then their student. Maybe if her life had been changed it would not have included skating, but it might have turned out better.

The other thing I will say is her coaches should be VERY ashamed of themselves. If they knew she was being abused and didn't call the proper authorities only because "she won't be able to skate" that's not a good excuse. Sounded more like they were looking out for themselves then their student.

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That is a great point. I taped this last week and just started watching it last night, but I've already reached Rawlinson's "You can't call Child Protective Services!" quote. The only extenuation I might offer is that maybe her coaches thought calling CPS wouldn't have really done any good anyway--sometimes governmental agencies can just make your life worse. But you've got to have a better excuse than simply "Tonya won't be allowed to skate!"

Incidentally, because of a silly basketball game, I missed the last 10 minutes or so of the documentary, since it ran over. Did anything interesting happen those last 10 minutes?

Maybe if her life had been changed it would not have included skating, but it might have turned out better.

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Another great point. I was also disturbed by Rawlinson's quote "Skating is Tonya's ticket out of the gutter!" I think her coaches may have led her to believe that skating was her salvation and that winning the OGM was her only road to success and happiness. If Tonya saw her whole life as "OGM or bust," then that would explain even more why it appears she was willing to sacrifice Kerrigan in pursuit of her dream. Instead, the message she should have been given is: "Tonya, you're great at skating. But there's so much more to you than that. We wish you a great skating career, of course, but there are many roads to happiness. Whatever you do, stay true to yourself and treat others with respect and kindness." Of course, that might be expecting a bit too much from her coaches, but then again, if they were basically parental substitutes anyway, then why not?

I feel the statement Tonya made no money off of the incident isn't quite true. She was able to sell the sex tape, competed in a few pro events, sold interviews, got money from boxing for a time (including the televised match with Paula Jones) and a few other things. She didn't make large money in comparison to the big-time pro skaters of the skating boom, but she made more than she would have, had she simply gone to the '94 Olympics and placed 8th without the scandal. She wasn't going to be SOI or USFS pro-am material, either way.

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Having an olympic medal or even being entertaining was not requisite for having a successful pro career. Gary Beacom never medalled at Worlds and neither did Hough and Ladret or Annenko and Sretenski. And Josef Sabovcik's Springsteen schtik was hardly so unique or entertaining as to merit him consistently getting invites over guys like Barna and Fadeev, who had similar eligible careers. If Tonya had played nice with say Scott or IMG or Tom Collins, she could have gotten more than a handful of pro events and a regular spot on COI at least.

In January 2014, ESPN Films did a documentary entitled "The Price of Gold." The film revisited the 20th anniversary of the assault on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan....On January 11, 1994, Tonya Harding gave a statement to the press in which she said, "I don't know for sure anything about what's going on at all." One thing to remember when analyzing a statement is that the shortest sentence is the best sentence; extra words give us extra information. We could shorten Harding's statement to say, "I don't know what's going on." That is a good statement. However, Harding qualified her statement by saying, "I don't know for sure." She was telling the whole world she knew something about the attack....

One thing that did actually make me snicker was when they were talking about the papers that were found in the dumpster behind the restaurant. I'm paraphrasing since I don't remember the exact words, but Tonya says something to the affect of 'they tested the handwriting and it DIDN'T match mine!'. Cue to the Prosecutor dude who says 'we tested the handwriting and it matched Tonya's'. Funny piece of editing there.

Back in the day (and pre-internet for me so I only relied on watching the nightly newscast stories), I wanted so badly to believe Tonya did not have anything to do with it because I was a huge fan of her skating and I was always rooting for her to win against Kristi and Nancy. But the more she just goes on and on and contradicts the facts (and even her own stories) .... sigh.

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She changed the story on "Access Hollywood." Now she says her handwriting was at the bottom of the enveolope, but "Not the parts that had to do with the attack. Good grief, how stupid does she think people are????

She changed the story on "Access Hollywood." Now she says her handwriting was at the bottom of the enveolope, but "Not the parts that had to do with the attack. Good grief, how stupid does she think people are????

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That is definitely bizarre--at least she deserves partial credit for creativity. Tonya probably needs to get Lying for Dummies. I mean, if you're going to all that trouble of being deceptive, at least you should try to be pretty good at it.

Also, check out this analysis of Tonya's interview by a body-language expert. It's at the same link I posted yesterday, but I think this video is new today: